"Shredded Stars Briefly Awaken Sleeping Supermassive Black Holes"

Astronomers have discovered that Compact Symmetric Objects (CSOs), a class of active galaxies hosting supermassive black holes, have relatively short lifespans of thousands of years, unlike other galaxies with longer-lived jets. These jets are likely fueled by tidal disruption events, where a single massive star is shredded by a supermassive black hole, leading to the formation of ultrafast bipolar jets that last up to 5,000 years. The study, led by a Caltech team, identified and verified 64 CSOs, shedding light on a distinct population of galaxies and providing a new avenue for studying interactions between massive stars and supermassive black holes.